Dadnamics Live! Episode 29 Puck Luck

One of my cleaning customers has season tickets for RPI Hockey and has been generous over the years to pass a few pairs my way each season. The seats are sick! They are center ice, 8 rows up with a perfect view of the entire rink. I typically switch between bringing two sons to a game and then alternate with my daughter. Needless to say, she had no idea how the game of hockey was played and she really didn’t care.

This was “Special Time” for us and she just wanted to be with me. Therefore, I knew that watching the game would have to be secondary. As you can see in the video, I tried to entertain her with “Rules of the Game”, Dadnamics-Style. Although that’s as far as the video goes, many other exciting events took place at this game away from the game. It’s all about creating memories and I felt wonderful on the car ride home with a solid list of memories.

(1) We got pretzels and hot chocolate. You can never go wrong with that!

(2) We left our seats for half of a period to explore the arena. We found secret passages and an empty corridor that was totally big and empty enough to do a daddy/daughter dance. So we danced and twirled for a bit. Again, you can rarely go wrong with this either.

(3) After the dance, we walked the perimeter of the rink and we heard. “A puck. Excuse me.” We turned around and one of the security men grabbed a frozen puck that left the rink toward our area. He saw my daughter and wanted to give it to her. That was our “Puck Luck”. If I had forced her into boredom by staying in our seats for the whole game, we would have missed out on this gift.

(4) After the game, we walked to the car a round-about way. We descended the Metal Staircase of Danger, ran across the Black Ice Palace, and jumped off the Wall of Wisdom (sounds like we were in the Elf Movie). The wall jumping was the most fun.

(5) We got into the car and took each other’s ticket and wrote on them. I wrote, “Daddy-Christianna very 1st hockey game”. She wrote the same. I keep mine in my car to this day and she has hers in her bedroom.

(6) On the way home, we stopped for a doughnut. I know, totally spoiled her with treats and love and time…

Along his journey from artist to engineer to entrepreneur, Ken Carfagno became a dad. And like many new dads, his kids inspired a long-forgotten gift. Ken could make up stories and draw his kids into them. This sparked a dream that lead to Dadnamics, the infusion of creativity, adventure, and silliness into dad time. And it lead to the Arctic Land experience.